Beyond Selidor

That's a very interesting story about your time at the bakery! I'm sorry about the awful sexual harasser boss - I'm glad you were able to mostly survive him without incident.

My first paid job as a teenager was when I was sixteen, the summer after I completed my GCSEs. I managed to get a holiday job as a production line assistant at a pie factory just down the road from where I lived - it was only a small business, family-run. My job, together with one other member of staff, was to hand-assemble the pies: we dealt with the small, one-portion, savoury ones with meat fillings. You'd put a layer of pastry on the base of a dish, then a machine would insert the filling, and you'd put another circle of pastry on top and press the sides together.

It was quite monotonous work to do for eight hours a day, entirely standing up, but I'm grateful for the experience as it meant I got to interact with a range of people from more diverse socioeconomic backgrounds than I'd known at my (selective, very middle class) secondary school. I remember I was talking to my co-worker about summer holidays once: I mentioned that I'd never been outside of Europe (which - among my very well-travelled classmates - I always felt very ashamed about) and she answered that she'd never been on holiday at all. It definitely made me much more aware of my privilege in that regard, and I've never forgotten that exchange.

I was recovering from quite a serious illness at the time, which - among other things - affected my balance and ability to stand for long periods of time, so I didn't last very long at the job, only two weeks; but the memory has always stayed with me. The following year, I started volunteering at a social care centre, where I eventually got hired as a worker, but that's a whole other story...